- Cross
- Cross Cross (kr[o^]s), a.
1. Not parallel; lying or falling athwart; transverse;
oblique; intersecting.
[1913 Webster]
The cross refraction of the second prism. --Sir I. Newton. [1913 Webster]
2. Not accordant with what is wished or expected; interrupting; adverse; contrary; thwarting; perverse. ``A cross fortune.'' --Jer. Taylor. [1913 Webster]
The cross and unlucky issue of my design. --Glanvill. [1913 Webster]
The article of the resurrection seems to lie marvelously cross to the common experience of mankind. --South. [1913 Webster]
We are both love's captives, but with fates so cross, One must be happy by the other's loss. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
3. Characterized by, or in a state of, peevishness, fretfulness, or ill humor; as, a cross man or woman. [1913 Webster]
He had received a cross answer from his mistress. --Jer. Taylor. [1913 Webster]
4. Made in an opposite direction, or an inverse relation; mutually inverse; interchanged; as, cross interrogatories; cross marriages, as when a brother and sister marry persons standing in the same relation to each other. [1913 Webster]
{Cross action} (Law), an action brought by a party who is sued against the person who has sued him, upon the same subject matter, as upon the same contract. --Burrill.
{Cross aisle} (Arch.), a transept; the lateral divisions of a cruciform church.
{Cross axle}. (a) (Mach.) A shaft, windlass, or roller, worked by levers at opposite ends, as in the copperplate printing press. (b) A driving axle, with cranks set at an angle of 90[deg] with each other.
{Cross bedding} (Geol.), oblique lamination of horizontal beds.
{Cross bill}. See in the Vocabulary.
{Cross bitt}. Same as {Crosspiece}.
{Cross bond}, a form of bricklaying, in which the joints of one stretcher course come midway between those of the stretcher courses above and below, a course of headers and stretchers intervening. See {Bond}, n., 8.
{Cross breed}. See in the Vocabulary.
{Cross breeding}. See under {Breeding}.
{Cross buttock}, a particular throw in wrestling; hence, an unexpected defeat or repulse. --Smollet.
{Cross country}, across the country; not by the road. ``The cross-country ride.'' --Cowper.
{Cross fertilization}, the fertilization of the female products of one physiological individual by the male products of another, -- as the fertilization of the ovules of one plant by pollen from another. See {Fertilization}.
{Cross file}, a double convex file, used in dressing out the arms or crosses of fine wheels.
{Cross fire} (Mil.), lines of fire, from two or more points or places, crossing each other.
{Cross forked}. (Her.) See under {Forked}.
{Cross frog}. See under {Frog}.
{Cross furrow}, a furrow or trench cut across other furrows to receive the water running in them and conduct it to the side of the field.
{Cross handle}, a handle attached transversely to the axis of a tool, as in the augur. --Knight.
{Cross lode} (Mining), a vein intersecting the true or principal lode.
{Cross purpose}. See {Cross-purpose}, in the Vocabulary.
{Cross reference}, a reference made from one part of a book or register to another part, where the same or an allied subject is treated of.
{Cross sea} (Naut.), a chopping sea, in which the waves run in contrary directions.
{Cross stroke}, a line or stroke across something, as across the letter t.
{Cross wind}, a side wind; an unfavorable wind.
{Cross wires}, fine wires made to traverse the field of view in a telescope, and moved by a screw with a graduated head, used for delicate astronomical observations; spider lines. Fixed cross wires are also used in microscopes, etc.
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.
